I've released a new version of the YafaRay-E (Experimental) testing branch. I've prepared builds for Linux 32bit / 64bit and for Windows 32bit / 64 bit. You have the description of the new version and the download links here:

For more information, read the README file, the INSTALL file and the CHANGELOG file.

The changes between the last version (v0.1.99-beta4) and this version (v1.0.0) are significant, and they could create new issues, so please test this new version and let us know in the YafaRay.org forums and/or bugtracker any issues you have with it.

The list of changes between Experimental v0.1.99-beta4 and v1.0.0 are (including the changes made in v0.1.99-beta4c which was not released and v1.0.0):

Yafaray-E v1.0.0 (2015-10-13) for Blender 2.76:-----------------------------------------------Note: from v1.0.0 I will no longer use the suffix "beta", as all YafaRay-Experimental versions are inherently betas . I will use for version scheme: "Major.Minor.Bugfix". Major will be very important and structural changes with possible API breakage, Minor will be new and modified functionality without API breakage, Bugfix will be small changes and bugfixes.

* Fixed: Double application of input gamma to the Blender Color picker. So now scenes will look brighter in general, but they should also look more realistic with less tweaking.* Gamma input correction no longer used. The color picker floating point color values will be considered already linear and no conversion applied to them.* For textures, added specific per-texture Color Space and gamma parameters.* The color values exported to the XML file will be encoded acording to Blender Output Device Color Space setting.* In yafaray-xml, new commandline option added: "-ics" or "--input-color-space" that allows to select how to interpret the XML color values. By default, for backwards compatibility, color values will be read as "LinearRGB", but using "-ics sRGB", the color values will be interpreted as sRGB. This setting does *not* affect the textures, as they have already per-texture specific color space/gamma parameters.* Fixed: when exporting to file there was an error in Blender while reopening it to be shown in the Blender image view.

The problem was that Volumes were not really included in the raytracing process, so they were not reflected nor refracted. Now Volumes have been included in the raytracing process, so they can be refracted and reflected as any other objects. This is a significant change that could cause new issues, so please let us know about any problems in YafaRay bug tracker.

Now, if there are no parameters set in the XML for transparent background or transparent refracted background, their default values will be "false" and not "true" as until now. This will avoid confusion due to the new way "transparent refracted background" works, not rendering the background at all so volumes rendered against a transparent background do not carry "remains" of the background with them.

- Fix for Alpha Premultiply broken in Blender exporter: http://www.yafaray.org/node/682 Now the "Premultiply Alpha" option is back in the Exporter, but only when Export to file or to xml is selected. Premultiply will now be forced to true when exporting into Blender.

Yafaray-E v0.1.99-beta4c (2015-07-29) for Blender 2.75 RC:----------------------------------------------------------Note: builds were not created for this version, as it was only used for limited-scale testing. However, the changes made in this version remain in newer Releases and builds.

- Fix for bump mapping artifacts: http://www.yafaray.org/node/660WARNING: I've made significant changes to the bump mapping when using image textures, trying to improve it and get results more similar to Blender, but it could cause new issues so enough testing should be done to make sure bump/normal mapping still works correctly.

- New parameter to enable/disable lights. In the XML, into each "light" section you can add:<light_enabled bval="false"/> or <light_enabled bval="true"/>

- Ability to control per-light shadow casting. In blender exporter this is in the new "advanced settings" at the very bottom of the light panel. In the xml file, you can add this to the "light" sections:<cast_shadows bval="true"/> or <cast_shadows bval="false"/>

- New per-material "visibility" enum parameter that can have the following values:

I would like to point out that this new version of YafaRay and the Blender exporter is not backwards compatible with previous versions of YafaRay and the Blender exporter because of the critical color pipeline bug.

Except from users finishing right now a work with previous versions, we recommend upgrading if you don't mind about the experimental nature of this new version.

We will keep malfunctioning versions (YafaRay 0.1.5 and beta 0.1.99) available for users needed to review old scenes with a YafaRay version actually compatible with it.

Thanks David. One further suggestion for the Blend material, if feasible and if not already planned, is to be able to select the materials without having to manually type the material's name in the two fields, Material One and Two.

Unfortunately having to type the name of the materials is an "improvement". Before, we could just use a dropdown menu to select the materials, but... unfortunately Blender API is not too good... and when you deleted or added materials, all the "blend" material components changed!!

So, for this release, I decided to change it and manually select the material names. Now, if new materials are added or existing materials are removed, the blend components will not change. The only problem will happen if you change the name of a material that has been used by a blend material. In that case it will not render as expected but you will see a warning in the YafaRay Log so you can spot (hopefully easily) which material is causing the issue.

I've dedicated some time to this and unfortunately I could not come up with a better solution yet. Probably the best thing would be to convince Blender to improve their API so we can have "permanent references" to the Blender objects that we can use to link Blend material to other materials.

EDIT: I've seen that povmaniaco in his fork has something like a "mix" between entering the material names by hand and using a dropdown. I will take a look at it and perhaps try to do something similar in YafaRay.

Last edited by David Bluecame on Thu Oct 22, 2015 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Harvester wrote:Thanks David. One further suggestion for the Blend material, if feasible and if not already planned, is to be able to select the materials without having to manually type the material's name in the two fields, Material One and Two.

Hello,

This feature will be available in the upcoming YafaRay-E v1.1.0 (thanks, povmaniaco!

Hi David, I would like to gratefully thank you for making this build especially for Linux (32-bit)I couldn't get the chances to use it since i'm stuck with a Linux 32bit OS

Now i can enjoy playing around with it Feels a whole new program for me to play with (First time using Yafaray)

I got a little suggestion, I was trying to find an option to turn off the Mipmaps filter in Textures tab but couldn't find it..Looks like Yafaray doesn't have that thing (Yet) or maybe i can't find it.

It is possible for you to add a Filter option? Like the one in Blender Internals and Cycles, there's a feature to make the textures not blurry and stay sharp.